Inclusivity

As some of you may know, Nathan attends 2 schools. He is in a special day preschool program 4 mornings per week through our district. They offer an inclusion option with the state preschool housed on the same campus, but the school psychologist suggested to me that since he already has a private full-inclusion option this may be unnecessarily confusing, since it would amount to 3 different classroom settings total. So, he has special day in the morning 4 days per week and then his private preschool at a childcare center 2 days per week in the afternoon.
The private preschool is at a childcare center center on the UCD campus and is operated by a large child development chain. Nathan's been there since he was 14 months old, and he started there the day they opened. He's transitioned from the infant room to the toddler room to the 2's room, and now preschool. I received a transition packet regarding preschool and wanted to share a few things from my packet.
"Children are not required to be toilet trained in preschool. We will continue actively toilet training children who have begun the process." in addition, there is a 4 page illustrated (with cartoons! Not THAT kind of illustration!) handout discussing potty readiness and how to help with readiness.
They are using the "Handwriting Without Tears" method in the classroom and they describe this in the packet- they are going to use wood pieces, large letter cards, playdough, magnets, and chalkboards in fun and interactive ways to work on letter recognition, motor skills, hand-eye coordination and confidence. Interestingly, at the NDSC 2009 convention, one of the speakers, Diane Eldridge, RN COTA, talked about how kids with DS should use multisensory, hands-on manipulatives to develop emergent handwriting skills.
And from the "Preschool Developmental Goals" section, this: "The following goals are meant to be used as a guide. They include specific skills we wish children to acquire by the end of their preschool experience. Activities will be provided throughout the year to practice these concepts and skills. Your child does not need to be able to perform all the skills listed below." And what are some of these goals? Enjoys listening to stories; listens to and remembers simple rhymes and fingerplays; enjoys music, instruments and learning songs; is friendly and cooperative with adults and children; can participate in group activities without being disruptive; attention span is increasing; is beginning to count objects 1-10; can name primary colors and major body parts; can begin to catch and throw a ball. Okay, okay, I totally picked out the ones Nathan can do or that are emerging and skipped over quite a few things that are not emerging yet (describes own family members, predicts events based on observations, can hop 3 times on one foot, etc etc). But my packet tells me these are goals for the end of preschool, and that not all children need reach all these goals.
So, I read this packet, and I thought WOW. This is not a Nathan-specific packet. This is a general packet of information given to every parent of every preschooler. BUT it totally fits and applies to Nathan. I don't read it and think, well, how are we going to accommodate him? I don't read it and gear up for some sort of battle about the stuff that doesn't apply to my child. I don't read it and cry because my child doesn't do what he's supposed to be doing on some list of milestones. They have actually managed to design and describe a preschool program that is inclusive. That shouldn't be amazing, but it is. Way to go, Bright Horizons.